New Guy

Is there anything better than hammering thru the woods with your buddies? Quick intro, looks like you have a great group here and am anxious to meet everyone and share info and experiences. I have been at this for some time now and am currently training for Tecumseth Trail Marathon in Bloomington, Indiana on Dec. 2nd. I come from a road running background like most I'm sure. Run Boston, New York, most of the big road races but kept being drawn back to the trails. This will be my second trail marathon as I ran the Black Mountain Trail in North Carolina a couple of years back. Another favourite is the Escarpment Run in Catskill, NY which I have been fortunate to finish 4 times. I also enjoy triathlon and have been lucky to survive 8 Ironman. Enough of me, what is everyone training for? Any big plans for 2007?

Welcome to the website and forum Muddy! Thanks for sharing your background. The "about" button below tells my story if you're interested. I'll let other forum members expound their background more :-) I don't have any -absolute- plans for this next year, other than I have my eye on a relatively new 25/50k trail run that takes place in the spring on Antelope Island (an island in the Great Salt Lake), and if I can manage the training time, a 50 miler in the summer (there are a couple here in Utah).

If you do any interesting trail runs while you're training for the Tecumseth, feel free to post it in the Run/Race reports forum category.

Muddy, right now I'm am still recovering from my last 100 (AR100). I have canceled two upcoming races (Sunmart and Bandera) to rest up for Rocky Raccoon 100. In April I'll head back to Arkansas for the Ouachita Trail 50 miler but after that it get tricky. We are expecting our second child the first week of June. My plan is to pay off our O.B. and get a locked in C section date on the first weekend in June. This way I can run the training run for WS100 and then do the Mohican 100 in the middle of June. If anyone would like to contribute to the pay off, please let me know.

Welcome to the forums, Muddy! As for me, I'm still recovering from some knee issues caused by training for the Great Eastern Endurance 100k in VA. I had an MRI last Monday and was overjoyed to find out that I DO NOT have an lateral meniscal tear as I had feared. My PT is nearly positive that it's a patellar tracking problem.

My next race is the Bel Monte 50k in VA in March. Then I've set my sights on the OD Memorial 100 in May. After that, I may tri a few tris (oly and half IM)--I bought a bike last May and have been working on that whole swimming thing. Problem is, I sink like lead in the water.

I know Tecumseh well--I went to grad school in Bloomington. Good luck!

I know I am in the right spot, when there is someone that locks in a C section, so he can get in a trail run. That's great and will laugh about that for a while.
Glad to hear there is no tear in knee. I went thru something similar last year and was diagnosed with a stable tear, which hurts once in a while but I am still running. Any advice for Tecumseh, I just finished my last long run and am getting psyched.
Thanks for the welcome BCR.

Welcome Muddy. I will try the Santa Monica Mt's 50k this weekend and then off to No. Ca. for the Quad Dipsea the following weekend. For next year I want to try the Umstead 100 as I have yet to finish a 100. By all accounts it is suppose to be one of the easier 100's out there.
Lots of luck at your next trail marathon.
Chris

Welcome Muddy! It sounds like you've done a lot already!

As far as my plans are concerned, I'm doing Quad Dipsea next weekend (Chris, I'm No. 196, in case you want to say hello!). During the winter months I hope to do some of the 50k's that Pacific Coast Trail Runs puts on (they have a great program, fortunately). Next year I would like to do Miwok again and perhaps try my first 100m if things work out.

Marcel, hope you had a great time/race at the Quad. I ended up missing the race as I set my alarm on my cell phone and didn't hear it go off as it seems I had it on vibrate. I understand that it was a picture perfect day for an Ultra.
Chris

Chris, sorry to hear you overslept. The conditions were great. I posted a report in the Reports section of this site.

Marcel, great job. Read your report. Darn it I wish I could of been there to take in the beautiful and tough course. Next year you'll have to run the Santa Barbara 9 Trails. By their course discription sounds tougher than the Quad.
Chris

A belated welcome, Muddy! I hope we get some good reports from your neck of the woods.

I haven't logged a lot of miles lately, but I will be at Muir Woods for the 33k next weekend, then will be at Bandera for the 50k in January.

Muddy--how wasTecumseh? I'd love to hear a race report and your impressions of Bloomington.

Tecumseh was outstanding. The drive down was a little challenging as I hit that mid west snowstorm, then a hurricane in Fort Wanye, only to arrive in Bloomington in torrential rain to find out the bridge to registration had been washed away by flood waters! However raceday morning was sunny but cold and it warmed up to be a perfect day for a run. The course had to be diverted 3 miles on road due to the flooding and that 3 miles seemed longer than the other 23 put together. Very well organized, aid stations were plentiful and course was well marked. Very muddy, very hilly for Indiana. Had a great time and would like to return to check out more of Bloomington, maybe in nicer weather.

I'm going to piggy back off of Muddies post and give you guys a shout out and let you know another new guy is here to join the fun. I won't get into too much of my history here as it's in my bio but I am a relative newbie in the trail running arena.